Auctions Put Some Fun Into Fund-raising

Peopletalk

April 13, 1986|By Martha Gross, Staff writer

Of course, they ran an auction. Auctions are the big craze at fund-raisers of late. So Michael Andersen, Lorraine Cavallo, Carole Brame, Joan Fine, Judy Gilbert, Jeannie Ellis and Katherine Metzger of the North Broward Branch of the American Cancer Society put one on at the Crystal Lakes Country Club in Pompano Beach on April 4. This one was kind of nautical. It was called ``Cruising to a Brighter Tomorrow,`` and many of the auction items were cruises. The ballroom was decked out in enough balloons, flags, travel posters, sailor hats, life preservers and inner tubes to look like a cruise ship, and there even was a wonderful steel drum band bonging out island music to sip your rum punch to. You could almost feel the deck moving.

Louis Fisher was the auctioneer, with his dishy wife Mitzi acting as floorman (Mitzi`s so pretty she could coax a bid out of Paul Getty, I betcha) for about 200 bidders. Those three pretty lasses, Suzanne Dickens, Nancy Thrower and Linda Rue showed up. And Anne and John Loughran; Robert and Liz (the needlepoint addict) Welch; Mary and Michael Neuburger; sisters Ann Cramer and Judy Leisenberg; Peter and Lorraine Cavallo; Iva Christensen, and Wilma and Dave Hardin.

The Hardins are rock hounds, did you know? They`ve gone gem-hunting in the hot (114 F.) sun in Arkansas, the mud in Oregon, and the scrub in North Carolina. They`ve found amethysts, rubies, rutiles, garnets, sapphires and 15 other gems! The Hardins donated a star sapphire they found in North Carolina to the auction, and 10 pails of N.C. dirt. (The winner must go up to the gem fields of N.C. to get the dirt.) Doesn`t that sound like a super hobby? ``You have to like getting dirty, though,`` warns Wilma.

Larry and Bonnie Oberweger, Elmer and Sylvia Wirman, and Emilie and Harry Schulman bid on the cruises. Judy Stone and Gary Fisher bid on the Goodyear blimp ride. (Judy`s the adventurous type. She has already been up in a hot air balloon and loved it.) Jane Eberly bid on a dog grooming package. Carol Wharton tried for the services of a lawyer to make up a last will and testament. Dolly Bass bid on the Atari-600 home computer.

Judy Johnson tried to win the silk roses but hubby Gregg Johnson was interested in a different kind of flower. ``I`d like to bid on the auctioneer`s pretty wife,`` he said with a friendly leer.